CLEVELAND, Tenn. - For the second straight contest, the Lee University women's soccer team's defense totally dominated an opponent. On Friday it was a 1-0 victory over Valdosta State University and on Sunday afternoon the Lady Flames were in charge all the way in a 4-0 win over Auburn University Montgomery on the Ray Conn Sports Complex.
Lee improved to 5-1-1 overall and 3-1-0 in GSC play. The visiting Warhawks dropped to 1-4-1, 0-2-1. Lee hits the road for a much tougher assignment. The team will be in Pensacola, Fla. on Friday (Oct. 3) for a 6 p.m. battle with the University of West Florida. They will turn right around on Sunday (Oct. 5) and face another challenge in Mobile, Ala. against Spring Hill College (2 p.m.).
On the hot and sometimes windy Sunday afternoon shutout over the Warhawks, Coach Lee Hughes used only two players for the entire 90 minutes (goalkeeper Abby Whitcomb and defender Whitney Carrigan). The coach used 10 reserves and eight played no less than 24 minutes in the win.
The scoring started early when Analisa Lujan connected on a shot just over four minutes deep into the contest (4:07). The shot went to the bottom left side of the goal off her right foot. It was her first goal of the year, and the assist went to Megan Davis. It was her third of the year.
The Lady Flames stretched the lead to 2-0 in the 12th minute of play (12:11) on Grace Berry's third score of the year. The goal went into the right-side of the net off her right foot and was assisted by Alaysia Nye. It was Nye's first assist.
The defensive battle ended at 2-0 at the half and the Lady Flames quickly went back to work in the 53rd minute (53:24) of the second stanza. Nye ripped a shot into the right-side of the net off her right foot. Davis picked up her second assist of the contest and has four on the year.
With reserves playing the rest of the way, Sydney Clements got her first goal of the year in the 75th minute (75:42). The goal was assisted by Maci Ritzman who registered her first assist of the season.
All totaled Lee fired 18 shots and placed 11 on goal. AUM goalkeeper Karla Guzman-Ortiz was credited with seven saves. On the other side, the Lee defense allowed the Warhawks only two shots the entire afternoon and none were on goal. Lee keeper Whitcomb was pleased to pick up the victory.
Lee limited the visitors to only one corner kick and it came in the second half. The Lady Flames battled for three corners in each half. A total of 16 fouls were called, eight on each side. One yellow was issued against AUM.
Coach Lee Hughes' thoughts:
"It was a full team performance today! Everyone contributed! It's always nice to get clean sheets too. We are excited for the week ahead. We will keep on getting better each day this week."
